Project Paths...

[Anonymous]

Our company keeps all of the project information (tins, alignments, etc...)
within the current project folder on the network. Now, the way I understand
Civil 3D's inner-workings (and someone PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong) is
that, by default, the project information is stored in the Civil 3D Projects
folder which is created on the user's HD (by default). If all of our
project information is stored on the network, does this mean that I have to
change the "Project File Search Path" in the Options dialog box every time I
need to work on another project? Keep in mind that there are 7 of us who
would be using C3D and within the course of a week, we may have to work on
20-40 jobs (collectively). The tutorial says to "create a new project path
in accordance to your organization's standards". My organization's
standards is to put any files/folders associated with a given project in
that particular project folder - this makes archiving easy (you don't have
to search for other related files).

Can someone please shed some light on this for me? I'm finding this
particular feature of C3D to be the most confusing of them all.

Thanks in advance!


Matt W
"What am I gonna do with 40 subscriptions to Vibe?"

[Anonymous]

The project path is the location for storing all of your projects. Each project will get its own folder and subfolders within this path. Hopping from project to project is very easy with the toolspace prospector tab set to master view.

BTW: You don't have to create a 'project' for each site you work on. The project structure is only needed if you need to use a shared surface or data shortcuts.

[Anonymous]

99% of our projects will reference a site surface for alignments and
profiles.

This still doesn't answer my question. How do I create a new project path
in accordance with our organization's standards if all of the project
folders are created within the project path?? Our "project paths" vary from
job to job and we often have multiple people working on a project at any
given time.


Matt W
"What am I gonna do with 40 subscriptions to Vibe?"


wrote in message news:5045417@discussion.autodesk.com...
The project path is the location for storing all of your projects. Each
project will get its own folder and subfolders within this path. Hopping
from project to project is very easy with the toolspace prospector tab set
to master view.

BTW: You don't have to create a 'project' for each site you work on. The
project structure is only needed if you need to use a shared surface or data
shortcuts.

[Anonymous]

I have only done two projects so far, so maybe there is a better way, but you don't need to change the path in options. You can just add more paths. So I have added paths to my two projects. We are still using Land Desktop with Civil 3D, so I like keeping my Land Desktop projects as they are. I just added another folder called dwg-C3D in the same place that my Land Desktop dwg folder is. Then inside of the dwg-C3D folder, Civil 3D creates the project folders:

Alignments
Drawings
Model
Views
Xref
Point Groups
Profiles
Surfaces

I created the Model, Views, and Xref which is recommend in the subscription center tutorial.

The only issue right now is that my project name is "dwg-C3D" for both my projects. So I am going to have to get a better solution very quickly, but for now it works.

Josh Nelson

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure I understand the problem with storing all the projects in one location. (well, you can have multuple search paths, but more than a few gets a little silly) Each project is still self-contained in its own subfolder.

So, heres how mine is set up:
All projects are stored on a server (Svr1) in a folder (Projects), so my search path is \\Svr1\Projects. If I create, say project #1523, a folder named 1523 is created in the projects folder and then filled with subfolders and files for that project. Each project gets its own folder in the 'projects' folder to store all its project information. Here we aslo have addional subfolders for other departments to use for information pertaining to the project. (admin, eng, enviro, photos, etc.) Everything for a given project is is one location.

[Anonymous]

The way we have it set up now (Land Desktop 2005), we have:
W:\2005\2105001\Dwgs\C_Database
W:\2005\2105002\Dwgs\C_Database

The first folder is the year, the second is the project number, the third is
the drawings location and the C_Database folder contains all of the
alignments, surfaces, etc... that Land Desktop creates.

The MAIN reason we have it this way is so that when a project folder is
archived, all of the alignments, surfaces, etc.. will be archived along with
everything related to that project. The project folder (2105002 for
example) would also have other information: specs, emails, RFIs, addendums,
the CD drawings, etc...

Now if the NEW way is to have one main folder with the projects as the
various sub-folders then that's fine - we'll have to adapt. BUT, if there's
any way to mimick our current set up, that would be better for us. Are we
going to have to change our stubborn ways??!?

In our office, the project folder is setup by the IT department and
restrictions are placed on who can or cannot create folders/subfolders.
We're somewhat limited.

--
Matt W
"What am I gonna do with 40 subscriptions to Vibe?"

[Anonymous]

Our method of file structure with Land Desktop is very similar to Matt's way. We too like to be able to grab one folder with all our project information (emails, transmittals, specs, drawings, etc.) in it.

It would be much easier and smoother if you could just add another subfolder in your project number folder called "Dwgs-C3D". Then all Civil 3D data can live next to all the other project information including Land Desktop data. I anticipate using both still for quite some time. Then you would have a folder structure like this:

W:\2005\2105002\Dwgs-C3D\Alignments
W:\2005\2105002\Dwgs-C3D\Drawings
W:\2005\2105002\Dwgs-C3D\Point Groups
W:\2005\2105002\Dwgs-C3D\Profiles
W:\2005\2105002\Dwgs-C3D\Surfaces
W:\2005\2105002\Dwgs-C3D\Project.mdb

In order to accomlish this, under options, we would have to add the path for every project like this:

W:\2005\2105001\
W:\2005\2105002\

And all the projects would have to have the same name:

Dwgs-C3D.

This could really be a big pain. I don't see any other way to keep our same folder structure. It seems we will have to create a separate folder on the server like this:

W:\Civil 3D Projects\2105001
W:\Civil 3D Projects\2105002
W:\Civil 3D Projects\2105003

and then just have:

W:\Civil 3D Projects\

in the options. Does anyone have any better ideas?

I know the other issue with keeping everything together is that I have seen other posts and recommendations from Autodesk that your projects aren't very deep in the folders i.e. your path in options shouldn't be:

W:\Folder1\Folder2\Folder3\Folder4\Civil 3D Projects\


Josh Nelson

[Anonymous]

First, you'll need the UNC location of the mapped W: drive location. The project path doesn't accept mapped network drive paths, only UNC named paths. (ie: \\severname\sharename) Once you have that you can setup a few search paths to get you to the yearly named folders.

\\servername\sharename\2004
\\servername\sharename\2005
\\servername\sharename\2006

Now C3D wil look to these locations for individual projects. However it will not 'see' your LDD projects as C3D projects. C3D only sees a folder as a project if it has created a 'project'. In doing so, it creates subfolders and some files within them. Most important of those is the Project.mdb. C3D searches the project path looking for these .mdb files and brings them up a available projects. C3D creates 'Drawings' folder for the drawing files. Folders for alignments, surfaces, profiles and point groups are also created but they only hold pointers to the drawing files that actually holds the desired information.

C3D will create whatever folders it needs but is also happy to use correctly named folders that have been created ahead of time. (which is the way I do it) I create the top project folder and the Drawings subfolder (and other department folders) as part of the initial project setup. If a set of drawings I'm working on needs to go beyond a simple drawing and needs the features of a C3D project then I will create a 'project' and then C3D will create the additional folders and files it needs.

Consult your IT dept. for security changes that may be necessary for proper folder and file creation.


BTW: Deleting a project from toolspace deletes EVERYTHING for that project.

[Anonymous]

can you direct me to some of the 'recommendations from Autodesk' that you referenced in your post? i would like to have something in hand when i try to tell operations that we need to re-evaluate the folder structure.

thanks!
stephanie

[Anonymous]

So for everyone using Civil 3D, we will have to add the search path for each year in options, right? So eventually you could end up have quite a few paths in there?

Also, I have always been able to use mapped network paths, are you sure you can't use them? I attached a PNG that shows you what I have done. Also, I don't like the idea of having all the default C3D folders in my main project folder. I would rather have a subfolder in the project folder called C3D-Data or something like that and then have all the default folders in that (Drawings, alignments, surfaces, etc.). It will get confusing to have Land Desktop folders and C3D folders all right next to each other like this:

align
ALIGNMENTS
cogo
cr
DRAWINGS
dtm
dwg
er
lots
POINT GROUPS
PROFILES
SURFACES
survey
zz

I want people to have to go into a C3D folder to realize that they are opening C3D files. If someone unfamiliar with C3D goes into the folder structure above, they would have no way of knowing that the drawings in the DRAWINGS folder are C3D drawings.

Does this make sense?

Thanks.

Josh Nelson

[Anonymous]

Well, I can't find them right off the bat, but take a look at this thread:

http://discussion.autodesk.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5042454

They reference a Civil 3D webcast that may have been the place I got that from. I did find where Autodesk recommends that your files actually be kept on a local drive! Take a look at this site:

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/item?siteID=123112&id=6043619&linkID=3549480

I'll keep looking though. I may have just been remembering the discussion I linked to above.

Josh Nelson

[Anonymous]

Autodesk's help system recommends using UNC naming. (search Managing Projects) I suspect it might be the best way to handle multiple search paths without the need for maintaining multiple mapped drives on each users machine.

I've avoided using yearly folders for several reasons, one being the project path issue. Other reasons are projects that span more than one year or ones that go dormant, then resurface a year or two later as an active project. I've seen other firms handle the year issue with a year suffix added to each project name, but that still has some issues with renaming a project to more it forward in time.


C3D and LDD projects can be differentiated based on where they store their drawing files. LDD uses the DWG folder and C3D uses a Drawings folder.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the additional info. We actually have our projects organized in the following way for Land Desktop (we do most of our work for Cities):

J:\City 1\06-001\dwg
J:\City 2\06-002\dwg
J:\City 2\06-003\dwg
J:\City 3\06-004\dwg

Where 06=year and -001 is project number. I would like a subfolder dwg-C3D that would fall in the 06-001 folder for all my Civil 3D stuff. Our J: drive is a folder called Design on our server. So are you saying that in my options in Civil 3D and my project search path that all I need to do is give this path:

\\servername\design

then Civil 3D will look as deep as it needs to to find projects? Or do I need to add all these paths:

\\servername\design\City 1\06-001\dwg-C3D
\\servername\design\City 2\06-002\dwg-C3D
\\servername\design\City 2\06-003\dwg-C3D
\\servername\design\City 3\06-004\dwg-C3D

I was just trying to run with Matt's folder format, because I thought I could apply it to our method.

Also, I realize that C3D project info can be diffrentiated by the different naming conventions for the folder, but everyone has to be familiar with the naming convention. I just want to keep the Civil 3D more segragated from the Land Desktop data, but still keep it in the same project folder location as the Land Desktop data. I think someone would be less likely to go into a folder called dwg-C3D than Drawings. I don't want my C3D drawings opened in other Autocad products and risk losing C3D data, especially if they are versions prior to 2006. But maybe I'll just have to get comfortable with it.

Josh Nelson

[Anonymous]

At the company that I work for, the year of a project is the year in which
the project was created. In other words, that's the year we first started
to get paid for a particular project. As for projects that span multiple
years (such as a design for the ESPN campus which started in 2003) we
maintain the same folder structure and DON'T use any type of suffix. As
long as we're still getting paid for it, it's considered "active". If a
project goes dormant, it is then (90% of the time) archived. If if happens
to come back to life, it gets a new project number which may mean it's a
different year as well.

The process works very well - for us. It seems as though C3D was designed
with the idea that only one person would be working on a project. In our
office, there may be one person drawing the utilities (storm, sanitary, gas,
electrical, telecom), another doing alignments and profiles of those
utiltiies and yet another doing the grading for the new utilities.

So we all need to share this information which means that having the C3D
project files stored on a user's local drive is NOT an option.

The Land Desktop way of selecting projects was ideal. Hmmm.... maybe I
could create a little proggy that let's the user select a project folder on
the network and that in turn updates the Project Files Search Path??

Does anyone know if the Project Files Search Path is controlled by a system
variable (kinda like the Tool Palettes)??


Why is nothing ever easy??!?


--
Matt W
"What am I gonna do with 40 subscriptions to Vibe?"

[Anonymous]

I used LDD for a very short time but from what I remember LDD looks for Projectpath\Projectname\Dwg for drawing files. C3D looks for Projectpath\Projectname\Drawings for drawing files. Neither program will look deeper into any folder structure to find its files so any deviation will be an issue. I always wanted to bury the CAD files on folder deeper but couldn't because of this limitation. I asked my tech support people back then and they told me that the structure was hard coded into the software. I expected C3D to be the same way so I didn't question it.

I do like the way C3D gives its folders logical folder names. (as opposed to LDDs zz and cr folders)